Tower Talks with Inside Towers

Your Inside Towers Weekly Recap for the week of June 7, 2021. For more wireless infrastructure news, subscribe to our newsletter here .  Support the show

If you missed last week's highly-attended Pro Panel you can now capture the key takeaways here on our Tower Talks Podcast. Panelists included Cesar Ruiz, President & CEO, Learning Alliance Corporation , Todd Schlekeway, President & CEO, NATE , Heather Gastelum, Sr. Manager, National Site Safety, T-Mobile , Jonathan Eastman, President, VIKOR ,  Support the show

Your Inside Towers Weekly Recap for the week of June 1, 2021. For more wireless infrastructure news, subscribe to our newsletter here .  Support the show

In a Special Edition of Tower Talks , Inside Towers’ co-founders, George Reed and Eddie Esserman, join Business Editor John Celentano to discuss the introduction of a new publication. Inside Towers is launching ‘Intelligence by Inside Towers ’ or simply, ‘Intelligence’. This new publication is a significant departure from our regular daily newsletter. Rather, it is a quarterly publication that off...

Your Inside Towers Weekly Recap for the week of May 24, 2021. For more wireless infrastructure news, subscribe to our newsletter here .  Support the show

Join Inside Towers Managing Editor Jim Fryer in this second installment of “Tower Masters” as he talks with Tarpon Towers CEO, Ron Bizick, ll. This series focuses on the men and women who, for decades, have not only survived, but thrived as independent operators in the wireless infrastructure field. They have a unique perspective to share and Mr. Bizick is certainly no exception. Bizick is the Co-...

Tower climbing has been cited as one of the most dangerous jobs anywhere.  Even though industry associations and government agencies go to great lengths to establish safety standards and practices, working above ground level is still dangerous. Beyond just working at heights, a big part of the problem is the physical toll that climbing up and down tall structures demands. Fatigue becomes a critica...

Tower leasing is a big topic these days. U.S. mobile network operators, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, are upgrading or modifying master lease agreements with the Big 3 public tower companies, American Tower, Crown Castle and SBA Communications, as these MNOs implement their 5G network builds. Big 3 towercos cater to MNO near- and long-term needs. But mid-tier and small tower owners and landowner...

First responders – fire, police, emergency medical services - have for years relied on dedicated communications during emergencies using land mobile radios, those walkie talkie devices they all wear. These narrowband voice communications systems now work together with broadband 4G LTE systems from FirstNet for a whole new way for first responders to communicate via voice, data, and video. New tech...

‘Data analytics’ and ‘digital twins’ are becoming commonplace terms as the telecom business changes and grows. These terms refer to more and better digitized site information about towers and other wireless infrastructure. Better information means accurate details about the site structure, the installed equipment, and the condition of that equipment. Better site information ultimately means better...

Announcements of companies buying or selling towers, either as a standalone transaction or as part of a larger infrastructure deal, are happening on a regular basis. The wireless industry is in an active period with demand growing for towers and other infrastructure assets to support 5G roll outs and various wireless broadband applications. Recent valuations on towers are as high as they have been...

The telecom industry is in a high cycle of new wireless infrastructure construction of macro towers, small cells, and fiber for 5G and broadband applications. Through the pandemic, the infrastructure work continued as telecommunications proved to be the essential service. While all the field work is good news for engineering and installation firms that build the network for the carriers, these com...

Before building towers or small cells, wireless carriers must obtain approvals from the local government in whose jurisdictions the infrastructure is being deployed. Increasingly, carriers want to install small cells on telephone or utility poles, on streetlights or in rights-of-way. More than just reviewing and approving carrier plans, municipalities must adhere to FCC rules that govern the proce...

Kathy Gill, CEO of Tower Safety , founded the company in 2013. Today, it offers a wide variety of safety and rescue training options, from cell tower certifications to drone inspections. According to Gill, “we stand for workplace safety by providing training that empowers individuals. This enables our trainees to do whatever it takes to return home safe, every day.” In just 20 minutes, Gill and Re...

Inside Towers begins a new series of Tower Talks by focusing on the men and women who, for decades, have not only survived, but thrived as independent operators in the wireless infrastructure field. “Tower Masters” is an apt term for those who have seen “all the Gs,” the rise of the big towercos, the merger of carriers, the influx of new technologies, new FCC rules and, yet, have kept building tow...

Join WIA President and CEO Jonathan Adelstein and Inside Towers Managing Editor Jim Fryer at the Wireless Water Cooler with their special guest FCC Chairman Ajit Pai as he reflects on his tenure. What does he consider his greatest accomplishments? What work is left to be done? Does he have regrets? (Spoiler alert, he does not.) What’s in store for him after the FCC? Support the show

We all rely heavily on our internet service and wireless devices to stay connected, especially through this pandemic. With mobile data demand surging and 5G deployments ramping up, the need for qualified tower technicians to install and test wireless network infrastructure is greater than ever. Yet there is a critical shortage of tower techs. Thousands more are needed. NATE- The Communications Inf...

Talk around the water cooler this month centered on workforce development and the current infrastructure legislation being debated in Congress. Podcast show co-hosts Jonathan Adelstein, President and CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association, and the Managing Editor of Inside Towers , Jim Fryer, were lucky enough to snag some time with a Congressional leader in the thick of it all: U.S. Repre...

Connected data usage from both mobile devices and fixed IoT sensors is growing exponentially. To meet that growth, wireless infrastructure must be expanded greatly with more macrocells, small cells and fiber backhaul to support the multitude of 5G applications and use cases that operate on a mix of low-, mid-, and high-band frequencies. Advanced wireless technologies need qualified and certified m...

Spectrum is the lifeblood of wireless. This is especially true for 5G that uses a range of low-, mid- and high-band frequencies. What and how much spectrum is allocated for commercial and government use is handled through an interagency process between the FCC and NTIA, part of the Department of Commerce. For the most part, the interagency process works but at other times, not so much. John Celent...

Part III of this three part series discusses developing field technician fiber installation and testing skills. Join John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor as he continues this informative and in-depth discussion with industry experts Mike Dee , Sr. Field Engineer and Jeff Harmon , Sr. Systems Engineer from Viavi Solutions and Scott Jackson , National Market Manager with Graybar . Hear this...

Fiber optics technology is integral to the high-speed operation of modern telecom networks. In an exclusive three-part series, Tower Talks dives into the subject of how, where, and why fiber is deployed in telecom. Part I covered a high-level view of fiber optic technology and fiber terminology, the current market environment and how fiber is adapted for use in different parts of the telecom netwo...

Hosts Jonathan Adelstein, President and CEO of WIA, and Inside Towers Managing Editor Jim Fryer got to spend a few minutes with tower-climbing FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr recently for the fourth edition of the Wireless Water Cooler.    Carr discussed the latest happenings in wireless workforce development and how the industry needs to double its workforce to get the necessary jobs accomplished o...

“It takes a lot of wires to make wireless work.” Today, that means fiber optic cable. Fiber handles high-speed multimedia traffic over long distances more efficiently and cost-effectively than copper cables. Fiber use in wireless is growing – at cell sites, for backhaul, in data centers and for long-haul transport. Though light weight and easier to handle than copper cable, fiber installation and...

Spectrum is more valuable than ever. For 5G, spectrum is needed in low-band, mid-band and high-band frequencies, the so-called ‘Layer Cake’, to enable a whole new set of high-speed, low latency mobile data applications and use cases. The results of the recently concluded FCC Auction 105 for Priority Access Licenses in the 3.5 GHz CBRS mid-band spectrum show who won and where they will use this spe...